Strasbourg Observers

View posts from: Article 2

  • Dr. Türkan Ertuna Lagrand

Beyond Opuz v. Turkey: the CJEU’s Judgment in WS and the Refugee Law Consequences of the State’s Failure to Protect Victims of Domestic Violence

February 20, 2024

By Dr. Türkan Ertuna Lagrand Introduction Fifteen years after Opuz v. Turkey, Türkiye is once more the source for a groundbreaking judgment of a European court focusing on domestic violence. In its judgment of 16 January 2024 in WS (C-621/21), the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) has established some long-awaited crucial interpretations to […]

  • Christopher Roberts

Machalikashvili and Others v. Georgia: The Critical Importance of the Burden and Standard of Proof to Human Rights Adjudication

March 17, 2023

Christopher Roberts Machalikashvili and Others v. Georgia concerned the killing of T.M. by members of the Counter-Terrorism Department of the State Security Service (‘SSS’) of Georgia on 26 December 2017. The precise circumstances in which this killing took place, as well as the integrity and comprehensiveness of the investigation subsequently conducted into the killing, were […]

  • Spyridoula (Sissy) Katsoni

How to Get Away with Refoulement: Some Thoughts on Safi and Others v. Greece

September 07, 2022

Spyridoula (Sissy) Katsoni Reports on deadly pushbacks at European borders have become so frequent by now that they hardly seem shocking. Yet, even the toughest of hearts cannot but be affected when reading the facts behind the Safi and Others v. Greece judgment, released by the European Court of Human Rights (Court/ECtHR) on the 7th […]

  • Luke Maginness

Precedent set for UK Government to whitewash history of state authorised killings through GRIBBEN vs United Kingdom judgment

August 02, 2022

My intention is to explore the reasons for the judgment in Gribben v. United Kingdom (Application no. 28864/18). I want to provide context to the judicial decisions through an exploration of prior case law and the mechanisms of law which were used to come to these decisions. Case facts Gribben v. UK, centres around the […]

  • Christos Tsevas

Religious Conversion, Asylum Law and the ECtHR Case-Law: M.A.M. v. Switzerland

June 21, 2022

By Christos Tsevas In the case M.A.M. v. Switzerland, the ECtHR concluded that there would be a violation of Articles 2 and 3 of the ECHR if the applicant were returned to Pakistan in the absence of a thorough and rigorous ex nunc assessment by the Swiss authorities of the general situation of Christian converts […]

  • Joyce de Coninck

MH and Others v. Croatia: Resolving the Jurisdictional and Evidentiary Black Hole for Expulsion Cases?

January 14, 2022

By Joyce de Coninck MH and Others v. Croatia concerns the return of a family of 14 Afghan individuals from Croatia to Serbia, which resulted in the death of 6-year-old Madina Hussiny. This case is yet another in a rich line of recent cases relating to the rise of institutionalized pushbacks at the external territorial […]

  • Sjoerd Lopik

The Second Anniversary of the Urgenda Climate Ruling: A Day to Celebrate?

December 28, 2021

By Sjoerd Lopik Today marks the second anniversary of the Urgenda climate ruling of the Supreme Court (Hoge Raad) of the Netherlands (a translation of the ruling can be accessed here). With its ruling, the Supreme Court finalised the first case in which a national court issued a specific order to a government to reduce […]

  • Joseph Finnerty

Carter v. Russia: Evidentiary Solace before the European Court of Human Rights?

November 02, 2021

By Joseph Finnerty The Chamber’s Carter v. Russia judgment indicates a revolution for the Court’s approach to the extraterritorial application of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR). Its publication suggests a turn away from its, to put it diplomatically, conservative case law on the subject. Its innovation also extends to its approach to attribution […]

  • Cornelia Klocker

Estemirova v. Russia: A missed opportunity for the protection of human rights defenders

October 08, 2021

By Dr Cornelia Klocker Does the finding of an ineffective investigation and a violation of the duty to cooperate compensate for a non-engagement with the substantive limb of Article 2 ECHR? Natalia Estemirova was one of the most prominent human rights defenders in Chechnya, investigating and documenting cases of enforced disappearances, abductions, torture and extrajudicial […]

  • Dr. Ramute Remezaite

Proving incidents in custody: significance of expert evidence in Lapshin v Azerbaijan

September 28, 2021

By Dr. Ramute Remezaite The significance of evidence in the adjudication of individual human rights complaints by the European Court of Human Rights (Court) is indisputable: the Court will normally rely on the evidence provided by the parties and the facts established in the domestic judicial proceedings. In some instances, such as those relating to […]

  • Lisa Weinberger

Kurt v Austria: A missed chance to tackle intersectional discrimination and gender-based stereotyping in domestic violence cases

August 18, 2021

By Lisa Maria Weinberger* On 15 June 2021, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) rendered its judgment on the domestic violence case Kurt v Austria. This case concerned a woman in Austria who experienced domestic violence at the hands of her husband, which resulted in his murdering their son. Based […]

  • Dr. Dilek Kurban

Gasangusenov v. Russia and the right to life: When the ECtHR establishes state responsibility with the wrong reasoning

July 05, 2021

Dr Dilek Kurban (Fellow and Lecturer, Hertie School, and Max Weber post-doctoral fellow, EUI, 2021-2022) What should a supranational human rights court do when faced with a case concerning extrajudicial execution of civilians by a state agent? Certainly not what the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR or the Court) has done in the case […]